No, it’s not Avatar: Flight of Passage…
Disney has set the bar higher than ever before with their upcoming line-up of attractions. While Disney still has plenty of plans for classic dark rides beloved by children, the opening of Pandora: The World of Avatar, has made a dramatic shift in commitment to immersive attractions that place guests in the center of their favorite adventures. Most exciting among these have been Disney’s ambitious plans for Star Wars Land.
The parameters that make a favorite attraction vary from guest to guest. For some, it’s roller coasters or bust while others prefer dark rides that inspire childhood wonder. For many who visited Walt Disney World the past year, the clear winner might be Avatar: Flight of Passage, which is arguably the most immersive attraction Disney has ever built.
Or is it?
We recently explored how Disney’s incredible plans for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge bear striking similarities to something like a living video game. Guests don’t just want to be spectators of their favorite stories. They want to interact with the space, such as you can on Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin or Toy Story Mania. They want their actions to matter, meaning a clear shift in theme from tours to quests. In Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, guest’s actions on the land’s flagship attractions will affect your experience in the park that day. In one of these, guests will actually enter a full replica of the interior of the Millennium Falcon, very purposefully designed to not feel like a queue leading to an obvious simulator. The plan is to make it feel as much as possible like you are on the Millennium Falcon itself and its time to fly.
Image: Disney
Now, don’t get us wrong. Avatar: Flight of Passage is an incredible attraction, but it is still ultimately a very elaborate tour of Pandora on the back of a magnificent banshee. It is extremely cool, but it is nowhere near the bar of immersion Disney is suggesting for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and its attached resort.
What if we were to tell you though that Walt Disney World has already debuted an attraction that does set that bar for immersion as high as Disney has suggested—an attraction where guests become the star characters in an epic quest so intense that you might just forget it’s not real?
The funny thing is most guests have never heard of it… and you don’t even need a park admission to access it.
Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire debuted quietly at Disney Springs this past December to a forgotten corner of the Marketplace. Through the unassuming doors of a building simply marked “The Void” waits what might be the best attraction at Walt Disney World—and it is an absolute game changer.
A living video game…
I will admit, despite being an avid Star Wars geek, I wasn’t particularly excited when I heard about Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire. Described as a “full sensory, immersive experience” that uses “real-time hyper-reality that combines interactive sets, real-time effects and amazing technology”, it sounded suspiciously to me like an attempt to rebrand Disney Quest into a single attraction. With Disney’s insatiable climate for upcharge experiences, it felt like a cash grab (tickets are $29.95 for ages 10 and up only), and I had overall low expectations. Disney has experimented with virtual reality for nearly thirty years, and their results haven’t always been necessarily thrilling. I remember as a kid having the opportunity to join a focus group to test drive the Magic Carpet Ride VR experience that ultimately became part of Disney Quest. It was a blast but didn’t necessarily “feel” like reality—just like a normal video game with a big helmet for a screen.
Wow, how times have changed.
Image: The Void
Virtual reality has really come into its own the past five years in terms of finally feeling like reality. However, the catch is that even the coolest virtual reality experiences still operate a bit like an Xbox Kinect—you can flail your arms or a prop sword, but if you attempt to run after an enemy or leap off a high tower Assassin’s Creed style, you’re going to end up destroying your living room. The minute you try to actually touch something or you don’t feel wind on your face amid a storm, the illusion is broken.
Disney partnered with the hyper-reality experts at The Void to craft an experience that overcomes these immersion-breakers, designing an attraction that places you smack into the middle of a quest to secure crucial intelligence for the Rebellion. You aren’t just a guest watching familiar Star Wars characters engage in the action—you are the main characters, and the fate of the mission rests on your shoulders. Using a combination of a giant (and according to the cast members, “very ugly”) maze, carefully placed props, and physical stimuli like rushing wind and rumbling floors, Disney found a way to place you inside the Star Wars universe in a way that feels stunningly real.
Don’t let first impressions fool you…
Image: Jett Farrell-Vega
Our first impressions of Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire kept our expectations low initially—it’s very new, and they are still working out a few bugs. Going against our usual pattern, we visited towards the end of the busy Christmas season after seeing online that tons of ticket slots were open (online booking is one of the nice conveniences about this attraction. The cost is comparable to most escape games in Orlando).
Disney Springs was packed, and despite having tickets for 3:50, the lobby was so crowded with walk-ins that they shuffled guests with e-tickets into an exterior line. No big deal, but check-in was a little convoluted and the wait was unusually long for an experience with a reservation time. We ended up waiting something near 35-40 minutes before we were finally ushered into the pre-show briefing area. Do note that with how immersive an experience this attraction is, you do have to sign a waiver.
The pre-show involves Cassian Andor from Rogue One giving you a top-secret mission to infiltrate an Imperial compound on Mustafar disguised as stormtroopers. Your goal is to locate a crate with intelligence vital to the Rebellion. The pre-show audio is very difficult to hear, and the briefing bugged out once while we were watching and had to be restarted. Still, the premise seemed cool enough. You even get to pick the accent color for your stormtrooper armor.
Image: Jett Farrell-Vega
After the pre-show, you are ushered into a prep area where you can store your belongings and a cast member fits you with a virtual reality vest and helmet. This is the one part of the experience that slightly breaks the immersion, but there’s no getting around it—this is seriously new territory for theme parks. The vest feels remarkably similar to stormtrooper armor, a bit reminiscent of the vests used in laser tag.
Before you enter the maze (which is kept hidden for the most part), the cast member has you check your gear to make sure you can see the other members of your party. I was initially very worried upon lowering my facemask and finding a crazy blurry picture. Don’t panic or stay quiet if this happens to you. The cast member will help you adjust the knob on top of your head to bring everything into crystal clear focus. If you run into issues during the experience, that’s the knob you want to adjust.
From this point on, all our previous apprehensions disappeared.
Aren’t you a little short for a stormtrooper?
Image: Disney
We’ll do our best to avoid plot-specific spoilers, but from the moment you lower your visor, you are 100% immersed into the Star Wars universe. Your friends and family appear in full stormtrooper gear, and when they speak, you hear their voices as if through the speakers in your Imperial-issue helmet. Your own armored hands flail in front of you when you move your arms, and if you do what I did and shamelessly tap on your beloved’s helmet, good grief, it feels just like stormtrooper armor. Looking up, you find yourself staring directly at Rogue One’s snarkiest droid, K-2SO, who lays out the parameters of your mission (with plenty of shameless sass). The floor rumbles as the transport you’re in touches down.
It is admittedly easy to stand there dumbfounded when you are ordered to step off the transport. Your brain wars with your eyes as you expect to plow face first into an unseen wall in the real world. There’s a part of you that still knows that you’re flying blind. When my husband and I finally tottered off the ship, we admittedly plowed into each other like a couple of penguins trying to squeeze through the same hole in the ice. When you step onto a guard-rail-free walkway or a floating platform hovering above a lake of lava, it is very easy to get actual vertigo.
It takes another leap of logic to realize that when you’re asked to press buttons in the story, you really do reach out with your stormtrooper arm and press a real button or pull a real lever. The experience isn’t 100% seamless but it is incredibly close. If you’ve ever done any sort of acting or role-playing (I’m looking at you Star Wars Galaxies and The Old Republic players), you just reach a point where you throw propriety to the wind and get into character.
When you finally get your hands on a gun is when things really get interesting.
Image: The Void
The stormtrooper rifles are extremely responsive, to the point that if you shoot a wall or a guard rail, it will actually spray molten carbonite in protest. You’re hurried from one harrowing scenario to the next, and video gaming skills come quite in handy. During shootouts, you realize quickly that it pays to actually take cover just like you would if playing Battlefront or Uncharted. You can fire blind from cover, and almost every element responds to gunfire. Your armor gives you slight buzzing-zap any time you are shot.
In a way, Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire is like Disney’s first big crack at an escape game. We have mentioned before that Disney had toyed with escape experiences as one of their experiences for corporate groups, but this takes things to a whole new level. While Secrets of the Empire isn’t a true escape room (you will still make it to the end just about no matter what), your choices do affect the outcome of the quest. There are several puzzles which vaguely echo what you might find in an escape room, only you are escaping a very angry army of trigger-happy imperials and rage-monsters.
Oh, and no spoilers, but the finale is a doozy…
A game changer…
Image: The Void
The end result of Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire is an attraction so crazy fun and immersive that it might truly be the best thing at Walt Disney World right now. Most guests are ignoring it because of the upcharge price, the mystery around it, and because it isn’t in the parks. It doesn’t fit the “classic” mold of a Disney attraction, but it is seriously one of the most fun things we have ever done at Walt Disney World. Even if you aren’t a Star Wars fan, the realism of the experience is stunning. For superfans, it’s literally your childhood make-believe coming to life.
While the current format for Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire makes it more suitable for an upcharge experience, the possibilities are endless for how this technology could be applied in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and elsewhere in Walt Disney World. The cast members we spoke to at The Void suggested the attraction is not just a pop-up experience—they are there to stay for the foreseeable future, meaning Disney is serious about exploring this technology and how it can be used in future guest experiences. If this holds even a hint what might be in store for Star Wars Land’s much-anticipated two flagship attractions, we are looking at a new array of theme park experiences unlike anything ever attempted before.
Don’t take our word for it. Seriously, before your next trip, book a ticket and experience Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire for yourself… Cassian says you have to.
Have you experienced Star Wars: Secret of the Empire? What were your impressions? In your opinion, is it a better attraction even then Avatar: Flight of Passage?
